This is a crosspost with the Leadership Learning Community posted Thursday, March 24th. The mission of LLC is to” strive to advance a more just and equitable society by transforming the way leadership development work is conceived, conducted and evaluated.”  Their members include a diverse group of funders, practitioners and consultants, all of who are engaged in leadership development work.

When asked to prepare a post for the new Leadership Learning Community guest blog series, I was honored. Then panic set in. What could I add to the wealth and depth of research, writing and discussion on leadership? As a consultant I come in touch with leadership and leaders all the time and as the principal and founder of a consulting practice, I am a leader and strive to exercise leadership, but still, I was stymied. I decided to let it simmer for a bit. And then I came face to face with a truth I have avoided for some time now…. the discussions, dialogues, debates and desire for documentation of leadership challenge me. There, I said it. It’s out in the open. I know I cannot be the only one.

So, in the spirit of a blog being an opportunity to share ideas and engages others in reflection and perhaps exchange, here is what comes up for me when I unpack my challenge with the leadership discussion:

• Identity – How and in what ways does it come in to play in terms of one’s understanding of leadership, experience with it, and how one exercises it? If I use myself as an example, how do the various parts of me (i.e., female, African-American, 40+, born on the East Coast, heterosexual, etc.) influence how and in what ways I experience and exercise leadership? Does one have primacy?
•  Context - Does the way an individual exercises leadership change depending on context? I know I show up differently (or try to) based on who is in the room and intention. I also know that because of my identity, I am perceived a certain way before I say a word. I am mindful of this when I think about how to actively exercise leadership.
• Balance of Art and Science – In our efforts to identify the component parts of leadership and what supports and strengthens it are we missing the “magic” that happens when people come together and a new context and culture is created? Networks, community mobilizations, even flash mobs are examples of context in which leadership seems different than in a traditional organizational model. But leadership also looks different depending on the identity of the leader regardless of the structure in which they are working.
•  Multiple Frames-Often new ideas, research or opportunities cause a shift and frequently rejection of past approaches or frameworks which have proven to be effective and impactful. I worry that we turn away from what we know in search of some evasive and seemingly more complex approach or solution. I want us to embrace an “and” framework where we are willing, able to identify and apply the most relevant and appropriate frame given identity, context and the balance of art and science.
• Leadership Products – Lastly, how and in what ways does it matter if we have leaders who exercise leadership in whatever is currently deemed best practice? For me, and the client partners with whom we are honored to work, their exercise of leadership and role as leaders is in service of something more than a healthy organization but to contribute to a more equitable society, to level the playing field as it were.

I want to thank LLC for creating both virtual and in-person spaces to explore leadership in all its manifestations and its relevance to the work of the social and philanthropic sectors. The opportunity to have dialogue and debate advances critical analysis, theory and ideally appropriate and impactful application.

I spent the last two days catching up on some reading, primarily from fall/winter 2010. When I say reading, I mean hard copy, print publications. For me, they still have a draw and sitting on my bed or on the floor surrounded by their promise takes me back to childhood.

Amongst my pile, I noticed a small book. It was The 7 Components of Transformative Organizing Theory by Eric Mann. I remember receiving the book from a member of the Bay Area Justice Funders Network  for whom I was designing and facilitating a general membership meeting last year who had just attended the 2010 Social Justice Forum.

As happens to all of us with many things we receive, I put it in a pile to read later. Yesterday, as we remembered the life and teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. it seemed most appropriate to pick up the small booklet and make my way through it.

Following are the seven key components Mann identified:

1. Transformative organizing seeks radical social change through the strategy of building an international united front to challenge the U.S. Empire.
2. The transformative organizer is a conscious agent of change, a revolutionary educator with a plan to intervene in and make history.
3. Transformative organizing requires the leadership of society’s most exploited, oppressed, and strategically placed classes and races.
4. Transformative organizing is produced by transformative organizations.
5. Transformative organizing becomes truly transformative in the course of battle.
6. Transformative organizing transforms the organizers.
7. Transformative organizing requires a transformative political program.

Our work puts us in touch with many leaders engaged in efforts, which include components of the above. It is deeply gratifying and satisfying work.

Moving forward, as a consultant, I will be thinking about my role and that of our practice to deepen and strengthen the needs of our client partners and how organizing fits, or does not fit. And as one African American woman, in her mid 40’s, living in Marin County, California, I know we have made progress but there is much more to do.

We are in a time of increasingly complex need and demand, diminishing and shifting resources, expanding global interests, and a new media and information environment and culture that promotes and supports information sharing, innovation and collaboration. With this as context, it makes sense that we would look for and celebrate those who seem to rise above the rest and as the  Skoll Foundation puts it: “forever change established, but fundamentally inequitable systems.”

More and more these discussions herald the “social entrepreneur” as the leader of change. People like Lucy Bernholz, and organizations like the Skoll Foundation and Ashoka, often spearhead the discussions, promoting the good work of this newly-branded group of change agents, while also challenging both the social and philanthropic sectors to raise the bar on transparency, effectiveness and ultimately impact. It is encouraging to see more attention placed on the need for social change and to see an increasing number of people across sectors recognize the need for social change to address fundamental inequities and to push for it.

However, in doing so, let’s not forget those who have been holding it all together for the past several decades (and longer) and who have been making, for the most part, strides towards worthy missions and positive social change. They go by the term “Executive Director” or ”President.” They are the leaders of social sector and philanthropic organizations. In fact, you probably know one, are one, might have been one or aspire to be one.

Over the past 20 years, I have had the good fortune to meet and work with hundreds of these leaders who come from all walks of life. They are a remarkable group of people. Their work and focus spans multiple dimensions and integrates leadership, collaboration, management, supervision, innovation, vision and good old common sense. They work in environments of constantly changing expectations, shifting and competing priorities, and organizational and situational complexities. On a daily basis they have taken up the mantle of social change agent and pressed forward; despite challenges and set-backs, they have not wavered from their missions.

No doubt the conversation will continue as to what is or is not social entrepreneurship and thus who is or is not a social entrepreneur. In the meantime, on behalf of all that you have done, are doing and will do. I wish to say Thank You to the Executive Directors and Presidents of social and philanthropic sector organizations.